Friday, August 23, 2013

What is the single best training drill on planet earth? I have been asked this question in one shape or form, for the last 20 years. And the fact that my answer never changes, I guess is a good one. It’s my way of multiplying my division. The best training drill on the planet has to have the following criteria:

The setting must be as realistic as possible for the street.

The mode of attack must be as realistic as possible, ie, kicking, punching, trapping, and grappling.

Our drill must include weapons of some sort, and finally, in a perfect setting we should all be pre-exhausted before we attempt to apply our techniques.

So now the next phase of this writing will be the how to phase. And you will notice that by the time I’m done giving you directions, on how to perform this drill, all of the aforementioned criteria will be included.

Step 1 – Get together with ideally two advanced students, the three of you throw on a pair of levis, a long sleeve sweatshirt, tennis shoes, elbow pads, knee pads, cup, eye goggles(swimming goggles) and MMA gloves. Each of you stash a wooden sparring knife in your pants, and take off on a jog down any street, any side walk or any alley, while the 3 of you are jogging, roughly every two minutes, one of you lunge out and attack the other person, either kick boxing, clinching, ground fighting, or knife. Two of you engage in some ¾ speed sparring, while the third person is watching your back for stray cars, dogs, cops, etc… After a 3 minute round, each of you take off, and simply alternate attackers. As you get creative, you can work on two on one, three on one, knife fights, etc… At the end of the day, what we are doing is sparring, in the most realistic setting, the actual street, in the most realistic way(MMA and Escrima) against the most realistic odds(sometimes even sometimes not), and under the most realistic physiological conditions. And that state is exhaustion, because your sparring is coming out of running.

It is important to note, that if one does not know how to kick box/thai box, and if one does not know how to grapple, or knife fight, they have no business applying this advanced drill. Conversely, once someone has taken the time and effort to get their stand-up and ground game up to speed, I believe that investing a minimum of 10 hours getting familiarized with your art on cement in alleys against walls, down curbs, and through traffic, will exponentially improve ones likely hood to win.

So in a nut shell add this to your tool box, it is my absolute favorite, and remember to save it for last. It is our most advanced drill.

Site Under Construction

Slowly but surely I've implemented changes to the site's look and functionality. I'm sure you have noticed the changes.Ecstatic that I've finally been able to successfully update my site closer more in line with my vision of it.

Not sure if it will be the final look of the site or not, but the Sojourn of Septillion Steps with respect to the site's look has already taken quite a few steps beyond the first!

I will still be endeavoring to put up information I think will benefit your martial arts training as well as your self-defense. I sincerely thank you for visiting/reading!